What Curbs Hunger?

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If you're attempting to lose weight or trying to curb that afternoon sweet tooth, there are several things you can add to your diet to help. Drink plenty of water, especially before a meal. Fill your diet with fiber, complex carbohydrates and protein. These food components take longer to break down, helping you feel full for hours after you eat.

Water

Water fills up your stomach without adding any calories to your diet. Having 16 ounces of water right before you sit down for a meal helps make you feel full before you begin to eat. On average, people who drink 16 ounces of water before eating consume 75 to 90 fewer calories from food, a team of researchers reported to the 240th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society in 2010. Take a bottle of water with you in the car and start drinking on your way to the restaurant. You'll be less tempted to reach for the bread basket or overindulge in an appetizer.

Fiber

Fiber creates bulk in your digestive tract, making you feel full. Insoluble fiber, which comes from the rigid protective skin of plant foods, stays relatively intact in your gut. When you chew apple skins, celery, corn, whole-wheat bread or other foods high in insoluble fiber, your intestinal tract cannot break them down, forcing more bulk to rest in your gut. Soluble fiber, which comes from oats, the soft inner part of fruits and some vegetables, attracts water in your intestines. It immediately bulks up and forces food to sit in your stomach for a while longer. Most high-fiber foods have both types of fiber, but can have more of one type over the other. Meeting your daily fiber requirement helps you curb your appetite. You need 14 grams of fiber for every 1,000 calories in your diet, according to Colorado State University Extension. If you follow an average 2,000-calorie diet, you need 28 total grams of fiber each day.

Complex Carbohydrates

Because starchy complex carbohydrates take a while to break down, foods high in starch, such as potatoes, whole-grain bread, pasta, corn and other foods, can help curb your hunger. You need carbohydrates in your diet because they are the main source of energy for each and every cell. Carbohydrates break down more quickly than protein or fat, but complex carbohydrates, like starch, take a little longer than simple carbohydrates, which are sugars. Complex starch carbohydrates are branched molecules that begin breaking down in your mouth. Once saliva deconstructs starch and turns it into maltose, your small intestine converts the smaller maltose molecules directly into glucose. At that point, glucose absorbs through intestinal walls and enters your bloodstream. This process takes longer than digestion of sugars that immediately convert into glucose without being broken down.

Protein

Getting protein at each meal and snack helps curb your appetite for an extended period of time, since protein takes a while to digest. Enzymes in your stomach work hard to break complex protein compounds into smaller molecules. Once the smaller proteins reach your small intestine, pancreatic juices further break them down into amino acids. The intestinal walls absorb amino acids into your bloodstream, where they are carried around to support cell structure, build muscle tissue and act as a backup source of energy. Meat, eggs, dairy and seafood are complete proteins, meaning they have all of the essential amino acids your body needs. Plant-based proteins only have some of the essential amino acids. You can survive on strictly plant-based proteins, but you need to include a variety of different types in your diet. If you don't eat a lot of meat, but need to curb your appetite, fill your diet with lentils, beans, nuts, brown rice, peanut butter and other plant-based proteins.

About the Author

Melodie Anne Coffman specializes in overall wellness, with particular interests in women's health and personal defense. She holds a master's degree in food science and human nutrition and is a certified instructor through the NRA. Coffman is pursuing her personal trainer certification in 2015.